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"I am the storm. I am the swell. I am the sword. You stand before Ranbu no Izayoi. Your doom has come!"
GENERAL INFORMATION
Name: Izayoi Furuya
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Race: Mystrel
Origin: Osprey
COMBAT INFORMATION
Class: Samurai
Weapon: Wields a daisho pair consisting of a katana and a wakizashi. Typically wields only the long blade, reserving the short blade as a backup weapon. Is capable of fighting in a dual-blade style, but doesn't favor it unless the situation is especially advantageous for the tactic.
Inventory:
- Daisho pair
- Traveling robes
- Potions
- Adventurer's kit
- Rations
Materia:
- Time
- Wind
Limit Breaks:
- Shin-Zantetsuken: Charge forward, unleashing a two-step iaijutsu strike. The first is a singular iai cleave of immense speed and force. The force of the draw creates a vacuum effect that draws in nearby enemies and readies them for the second step, in which the user uses the momentum of the first strike to spin around and deliver a second massive blow before their charge leads them to dash past their foe.
- Storm, Swell, Sword: Encircle the target at speeds high enough to leave a trio of afterimages behind. Close in at once, seemingly striking from three separate directions simultaneously so as to leave no room for escape. Currently unable to be used without overtaxing Izayoi's body.
- Ranbu: Overload Time and Gravity materia to achieve godspeed, disappearing into a flurry of slashes lashing out in every direction. Currently unable to be used without overtaxing Izayoi's body.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Appearance Details:
At 5'7", Izayoi is quite tall compared to other Mystrel women. Her body is lean and toned from healthy living and her years as a samurai, but her musculature has declined from her prime after years of not holding a sword or extensive training. Where once she wore war plate, now she wears the robes of a wanderer, with only slight pieces of her remaining armor to guard her hands, shoulder, and chest. Izayoi is often seen wearing a straw hat with her robes, specially made to accomodate her ears.
Personality:
Once, Ranbu no Izayoi's blood ran hot, and her passions fierce. She thought of little beyond the next battle, and how to win it. Thrill and victory were all that mattered to her, until she suffered what she believed to be her final defeat.
Then, Furuya Izayoi laid down her sword and found peace, becoming a devoted spouse and parent. She believed her eyes awoken to the pointlessness of the blood she'd shed, all in the name of pride and bloodlust.
Now, Izayoi is a bitter, cynical woman, having her world torn out from under her twice over in the span of five years. Her bloodlust returned, but not as it was before. Where once she relished challenge and adversity, now anything in her path was simply an obstacle to be disposed of. Still, her retirement has served to temper her, bringing caution and wisdom where once there was only aggression. Her hatred of Valheim is such that even her previous antagonism towards Edren in the war has been all but set aside in the face of what she believes to be the bigger threat.
Biography:
By all accounts, little is known of the childhood years of Izayoi of the Wild Dance. When pressed, all she would say was that she'd lost her family at a young age and was taken in by a wandering swordmaster. Presumably, Izayoi spent the majority of her childhood and teenage years learning the art of the sword from this person, but anyone with a similar sword style to hers has never been seen or heard from by the time her name was known among the masses.
The first known sighting of Izayoi was when she'd appeared at an open competition held by a major Osprean lord by the name of Kaien. The lord was searching for new additions to his retinue, and offered to employ the winner of his tourney. It was here that a nineteen year-old Mystrel with only the given name of Izayoi dominated the tourney, swiftly defeating any opponent placed before her, including one of Lord Kaien's own samurai. Kaien proved as good as his word, and honored his promise to take the winner as his new retainer. Izayoi's star only grew from here. Within three years of joining Kaien's retinue, she was known across Osprey with the title of Ranbu, the Wild Dance, from the ferocity and swiftness of her swordplay. Within seven years, she'd risen to becoming the captain of Lord Kaien's personal guard, receiving training in how to lead men while learning further from observing her lord do the same on a larger scale.
Nine years after Ranbu no Izayoi's first appearance, the war with Edren came. Izayoi followed her lord into war, but in the first battle, Lord Kaien fell to the enemy's bullets. With his forces in panic and on the verge of causing Osprey's entire left flank to break, she took action. Stories are still told five years later of how Ranbu no Izayoi granted mercy to her dying steed before countercharging the enemy cavalry on foot. Her blade butchered the Edren chocobo knights until they broke, rallying Kaien's troops and saving the battle from becoming a rout. For her role in the battle, Izayoi was brought before the Emperor of Osprey himself, who honored her with the rank of general, despite her commoner status. For the duration of the war, Izayoi proved to be one of the fiercest foes Edren would have to contend with, slaughtering champions, commanders, and entire units in personal combat while engaging in tactics both unconventional and unbecoming of any proper Osprean lord. Poison, assassination, and sabotage ensured that her own theater of war held, even as the other generals of Osprey were either pushed back or defeated altogether.
By the final weeks of the war, defeat was evident. But Izayoi would not go quietly. On a mountain pass close to Edren's border, near a remote village, Izayoi and her personal forces made their final stand, blocking Edren's armies from marching onward to Kugane. The battle lasted for hours, the dead piling up along the pass. But in the end, Izayoi fell, a final gunshot tearing through her shoulder as she staggered back and fell, her unconscious frame sliding down the hillside and into the woods. In the interest of making up for lost time on the march to Kugane, Edren's forces didn't bother to confirm her death or search for a corpse, and moved on.
Izayoi never expected to awaken weeks after, having been rescued and tended to by the local doctor of the village at the foot of the mountain. During her convalescence, news of Osprey's surrender reached even this remote mountain, and she despaired at realizing the last decade of her life had all been for nothing. All the blood she'd shed, the lives she'd destroyed. Meaningless. With her life's work come crashing down around her and with nowhere else to go, Izayoi stayed in the village she'd awoken in. Over the next few months, the doctor who'd rescued her visited often to check up on his former patient, and the two eventually fell in love and married, with a daughter born nine months later. If she couldn't live for the sword any longer, Izayoi resolved to live for her newfound family, and settled into village life, hiding her blades away.
When Valheim invaded, the only warning the village had was the sudden stop of news and travelers for some time. Nevertheless, life continued on as it had for some months after. On one morning, Izayoi left her toddler daughter in the care of her husband while she headed up the mountain to pick herbs for his medicinal ointments and poultices. It was halfway up the climb that the hauntingly familiar sounds of battle and slaughter began to reach her. Eyes wide with panic, Izayoi turned and looked down the mountain to see smoke, flames, and an unfamiliar blob of soldiers in the village. Even after five years of retirement, Izayoi still kept up a basic exercise regimen, and she'd made it back down the mountain in record time. But it was still too late. The village was in ruins, the inhabitants slaughtered, and what treasures it had were looted. When she'd returned to her own home, the corpses of her husband and daughter greeted her. For the second time in half a decade, Izayoi had lost everything again.
Days later, after mourning and giving her family their last rites, Izayoi returned to the foot of the mountain and dug up her blades. Then, she left the remains of what had been her home for five years and began to roam Osprey, searching for the perpetrators. It didn't take long before she learned of Valheim's occupation, and of the Blight, The dots practically connected themselves in her head. Of course Valheim was responsible for the vanishing of the Light. It offered them every advantage, weakening Ibros for invasion. These godless foreigners had taken advantage of Osprey's weakness after the war to invade here first, and it wouldn't be long before they nipped at the borders of the rest of the continent. While she had no love lost for Edren, at least they hadn't resorted to Blight or outright conquering her homeland.
For the next few months, Izayoi took the fight to the occupation in a savage, one-woman guerrila war. She'd attempted to search for active resistance groups first, but found none, beliving that either she lacked the contacts to reach out or that Osprey's spirit was simply crushed. Ranbu no Izayoi returned, ambushing patrol squadrons and beheading officers and magistrates in their sleep. But nothing she did served to even make a dent in Valheim's forces. What allies she could manage to recruit were never able to keep up with her, and died meaningless deaths while trying to match Izayoi's relentless pace. Eventually, she was forced to admit that what she was doing simply wasn't working. On the verge of contemplating her life's second run at suicide, news reached her of Leonhart VII's proclamation, and Izayoi decided to answer the call. At this point, she had nothing left to lose, and she was still convinced that Valheim was behind the Blight. Stop one, and the other would fall as well. With her goal set, Ranbu no Izayoi set out to step foot in the nation of her old enemy once more.
Traits:
- Nosy, and gets in people's business.
- Feels an undue sense of responsibility towards close companions, and tends to mother them.
- Has a basic understanding of medicine and how to make remedies thanks to her husband.
- Enjoys fishing. Oily fish simmered in soy and ginger is her favorite food.
- Detests alcohol, refuses to imbibe.
- Collects novels and fiction to read in her downtime.
- Is out of practice from years of retirement. While still more skilled compared to the majority of warriors, it will take time, training, and battle for her to return to the absolute mastery of swordplay she once commanded.
Relationships:
Known to anyone who was involved in the war between Osprey and Edren. Has a reputation as both a ruthless general and a peerless blademaster. Is assumed dead by most who knew of her during the war.
- Isshin Furuya (Deceased): Izayoi's husband and the father of her daughter, Suzume. Was the local doctor of the village of Atsu, until its destruction at the hands of an unknown unit of Valheim soldiers.
- Hien Rijin: Lord Kaien's son and successor. Izayoi has known him since he was a boy, and helped protect and train him as he grew from a child to a young man. While Izayoi had to leave the Rijin clan's service following her ascension to general, the two kept in touch until the war's end. Likely believes her dead.
- Kurogane: An old smith living on the outskirts of Kugane. Forged the blades of both Izayoi and her master. Rated as one of the greatest smiths in the nation, but refuses to forge blades for all but the most worthy of swordmasters.
EXTRA
Voice actor: Anne Yatco
Theme song: Somehow, it's not Bury the Light.